


A Triptych Carol

by ChromaticWasp



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-22
Updated: 2015-12-22
Packaged: 2018-05-08 09:05:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5491589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChromaticWasp/pseuds/ChromaticWasp
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My WTNVSS giftwork to Tumblr user Fred-weatherby, based on their prompt "past and future Kevin". A reimagining of the episode "Triptych".</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

"...And good night, Night Vale. Good night." Cecil's voice poured into the microphone like a sweet, smooth syrup. The glowing sign in the booth that read "ON AIR" cut out like a star flickering out of the sky.  
Cecil drew his scarf around his neck; even in this desert town where the sun was hot and sometimes screamed in a tone that could not be heard, but could be wholly felt, the nights were cold in the winter.  
Also, the scarf brought the whole outfit together, so even if he wasn't cold, he totally would've worn it anyway.  
"Heading home for the night?" Intern Ellie asked, even though it was essentially a rhetorical question, because Cecil was very clearly heading home for the night.  
Cecil, briefly disregarding the clearly flawed logic for the sake of civility, responded warmly. "Yep. Carlos took the day off for holiday preparations. You know, Yule log, egg nog, cooked frog, Chernabog, the works."  
"Sounds great." Ellie chimed in. "But, I have some news for you. During the end of the show, a call came in. It's from Mayor Cardinal."  
"Oh! Dana called? Why didn't you put her on?"  
"I was going to, really, but you had already wrapped up the show. It sounded urgent, apparently. Something about Desert Bluffs. They're apparently really struggling over there. Saying money is tight over there would be an understatement, to say the least."  
"And...?" Cecil's voice hummed indignantly at the end of the word, like scratching the string of a violin with a fingernail.  
"And she wants you to cover it."  
"But the broadcast is already over!"  
"I know that, but if Mayor Cardinal wants you to talk about it, it's kind of a definite thing."  
"Look, I'm usually one for civic duty and all that, but-"  
Cecil had noticed that Intern Ellie's stare had traveled to a point in space a ways away from the radio host. Cecil turned to try and see what could have been so interesting, and that's when he saw it.  
The "ON AIR" sign was glowing.


	2. Ghost

In a town like Night Vale, something like a sign turning on seemingly by itself shouldn't have appeared so off-putting. It seemed commonplace, almost mundane, but somehow, Cecil felt...mystified by it.  
It was a feeling hard to describe, but it led him, beckoning like a tempting secret, a mystery that couldn't be left unsolved.  
He looked at the control panel outside the recording booth. The switch for the sign was "OFF".   
Intern Ellie glanced at the soundboard. "It says we're broadcasting a signal right now. From here in the studio."  
"Can you play it?"  
"Yeah. Hold on." She cranked a knob, and a nearby speaker began producing noise.  
"...llo? Hello...? Can you hear me now?" The voice itself made Cecil's voice run cold. He would have recognized it anywhere.  
"Kevin." Cecil gritted his teeth.  
"...Vanessa, is something wrong with the equipment? I don't understand what's going wrong here." His voice sounded timid, almost.  
"Um...I'm sorry, citizens of Desert Bluffs, but we hear at the studio seem to be experiencing a technical setback. I'm not sure what exactly I'm even trying to accomplish by explaining it to you. You probably can't hear me. I mean, if you could, there'd be no need for me to explain that we're having a technical setback."  
Cecil peered into the recording booth through the large window. There was nobody inside. At least, nobody detectable by basic human sight. He was convinced to get to the bottom of this, though. He wanted Kevin off his air waves as soon as possible.  
He swung open the door to the recording booth. Closing the door behind him, Cecil walked towards the microphone on his desk.  
He put on his headset, and the voice came again.  
"Hello? Is someone there? Vanessa, I swear, I can hear footsteps in my headset. Are we getting a call?...We're not getting a call...Our broadcast? What about it?...Vanessa, I have no clue what you mean. I was just sitting here, and I bumped something on my desk, and now nothing's working. Oh, this is such a disaster." There was a whining tone of confused desperation in his voice.  
"Hello?" Cecil spoke into the microphone. He didn't know what compelled him to speak into the microphone; the greeting seemed to tumble out of his mouth.  
"Hello?...Vanessa, did you hear that?"  
"Hello?" Cecil repeated. "Can you hear me?"  
"Oh! Yes, I can hear you! Vanessa, where is this call coming from? It...doesn't look like any of the phone lines are working."  
"What are you doing on my broadcast frequency?"  
"YOUR broadcast frequency? I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about. Who are you?"  
"Stop playing around. I know you're doing this on purpose somehow, and I'm asking you politely to stop broadcasting on my frequency." His patience was starting to wear thin.  
"I really don't know what you're talking about! I assure you, I'm not trying to steal your air, I just..." Kevin exhaled, frustration seeming to swirl in his head. "I just bumped my microphone, and somehow, something got messed up. I'm not sure what frequency I could even have gotten onto by bumping my microphone. Who are you? You never answered my question."  
"You already know who I am. Don't try to fool me, Kevin."  
There was a moment of uncomfortable silence over the airwaves. Cecil knew he had caught Kevin in his lies. But after the silence passed, he heard the voice again on the other line, quiet and embarrassed.  
"I'm really sorry...This is just so embarrassing, but I don't know...I don't recognize your voice."  
Cecil was sick of the act. "It's Cecil. Cecil Palmer. The host of Night Vale Community Radio. The one you-"  
"Night Vale?" Kevin said, quizzically. "I can't say I've heard of it."  
"What do you mean you've never heard of it? You and Strexcorp-"  
"Strexcorp? You mean that corporate menace that's trying to take over our radio station?"  
Cecil let the words sink in. "Trying to". That implied a present tense. That meant Strexcorp hadn't already bought out the town. This was a broadcast from a past time.  
"Can you believe it?" Kevin continued. "They're saying there's no chance left for this station...After all, things have been...Rough over here in Desert Bluffs. Financially speaking."  
Cecil noted that it sounded a lot like what was happening in Desert Bluffs now was a lot like what happened in the past. Like what apparently had led to the rise of Strexcorp in the first place.  
"Oh!" Kevin exclaimed. "Vanessa's telling me that the issue on our end is all worked out. Sorry for the inconvenience. Cecil, was it? Thanks for your patience. Goodbye."  
Cecil had no other words. "Goodbye, Kevin." As soon as the words had left his mouth, his mind began to race. There was so much more he wanted to tell him. He realized all the things he should warn Kevin about, all the things that he could change if he would just speak, the difference he could make from that little desk of his.  
But the "ON AIR" sign burned out, and the room fell silent, hanging heavy with a feeling of loss for what had never been had- a regret over choices that had never been made in the first place. Cecil's gaze fell to the ground, and the world seemed a little darker as he realized that, for all intents and purposes, he had been speaking to a ghost.


	3. Perspective

"What was that?" Intern Ellie asked Cecil as he closed the door to the booth behind him.  
"It was some sort of transmission from the past."  
"The past?!?" Ellie was dumbfounded. "You can't be serious."  
"Stick around here long enough. It happens more often than you'd think."  
"Where was it coming from?"  
"Desert Bluffs. Apparently, that town's working to become the center of my holiday through all of time and space."  
"So, are you going to make the announcement?" She asked.  
"The announcement..." Momentarily, Cecil had forgotten all about that. "I...I don't know, I...Hold on. I need to make a call."  
He pulled the phone out of his pocket, unlocking it and dialing Carlos' number.  
"Hey! Are you on your way home?" Carlos' greeting was warm and flawless, like seemingly every other aspect of his existence. Cecil loved everything about him. Which is why he didn't want to have to say these next few words.  
"No. As it turns out, something's turned up at work. I'm going to be home a little later than I'd like to be. Sorry to keep you waiting."  
"Oh, don't worry about it. Everything will still be here when you get home. Is everything okay over there?"  
"Yeah, no, everything's fine." Cecil reassured him. "I-I'll talk to you later, alright?"  
"Ok. Stay safe. I love you."  
"Love you, too. Goodbye." Cecil said as he hung up the phone.  
Intern Ellie tapped Cecil's shoulder. He turned to face her. She pointed to the "ON AIR" sign. It was on again.  
Cecil raced into the booth, placing on his headset and pulling up to his desk.  
"Hello? Kevin? Are you there?"  
"Cecil? Is that you?"  
"Kevin. I'm so sorry. I never got a chance to-"  
"Oh, there's no need to apologize! Frankly, I'm honored to have you on my show today. What a perfect guest for the Desert Bluffs Holiday Special Broadcast! Listeners, for those of you who may have forgotten, this is Cecil, host of Night Vale Community Radio; the reason that many of us are even here in this little wasteland we call home."  
Cecil's blood ran cold. There was a time he was used to hearing this same, familiar voice. It was chilling in its sterility, unwavering and almost grotesque. This was the Kevin he had come to know. But now he had heard another voice; a past iteration. The Kevin of the past sounded typical, human. This Kevin, however...  
What frightened Cecil wasn't the way Kevin seemed as if he lacked a soul. What frightened Cecil was the realization that the man had a soul once in the first place. He wondered if Kevin remembered the man he used to be.  
"So, tell me, to what do I owe the honor of having you on my show this fine Christmas Day?"  
Christmas Day? This broadcast must have been from tomorrow, Cecil reasoned.  
"I should ask you. You're on my frequency."  
"It's funny you say that, because from my end, it seems like exactly the opposite."  
"Kevin, tell me. What were things like for you...Before Strexcorp?"  
"I remember being a real grumpster, just a grouch and a half about everything! Mister Frowny Face, I’d call myself now, if I were talking to myself then. But Strex bought out my radio station, and everything changed for the better." He laughed. "Can you believe it? I actually tried to stop them from buying it! I tried very hard. I put my own body, this fragile thing, in between the Strex representatives and the entrance to the building, but they forced their way past me using ethically brutal methods that left me forever physically changed. What a silly old hen I was about all that!"  
Cecil couldn't help but imagine what would have happened if Strexcorp had come after Night Vale if they were in Desert Bluffs' position. At that state of weakness, what would have become of the town Cecil had called home for almost all his life? If Cecil had been the one defending his station, what would they have done to him?  
"Cecil? Are you still there? Ce-"  
Static roared over the headset. The "ON AIR" sign had gone out again. It reminded him of how the light disappeared from the eyes of the newly dead. It put everything into perspective.


	4. This Much

Not even a minute had passed from the time the transmission had stopped when Intern Ellie came into the booth, a slip of paper in hand.  
"This is the official release from Mayor Cardinal." She placed the slip on his desk. "We've also been receiving some calls from listeners. Apparently, these foreign transmissions have been hijacking our broadcast. Which means-"  
"'On Air' really does mean 'On Air'. The listeners probably have no idea what's happening. I've got to..." He stared down at the paper on the desk before turning to face his intern. "Get us on the air. It's time for an emergency broadcast."  
"Right away."  
Within seconds, Cecil was alone in the little room once again, and the broadcast had begun.  
"We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you a piece of breaking news. As you may or may not be aware, there have been some foreign transmissions hijacking our broadcast. I'd like to personally address that we know of this issue and are dealing with it as quickly and efficiently as we can."   
A loud burst of static filled Cecil's headset, sharp and sudden, like an explosion. When it faded, a raspy voice gently filled his ears.  
"Cecil..." It was hoarse, and dry, but it was undeniably Kevin's voice. "Cecil, it's me. Are you there?"  
"I'm here, Kevin. I'm here." Cecil was quick to reply, but slow in speaking.  
"It's good to hear your voice. It's been a long, long time. It seems as if I'm withering away, but I suppose I know that feeling. I could die any day now, Cecil."  
"I'm...I'm sorry." Cecil tried to console this voice from a time he did not understand, but he did not know how.  
"I'm not afraid." Kevin's voice seemed to stop wavering for that one sentence. He continued, voice crackling and dry, like dead leaves. "I'm not afraid to die. Because it's happened before, do you know that? Kevin's been dead for a long time now. He died that day, at the radio station, and I am what climbed from the rubble. The future is desolate, Cecil. How I wish things could have been different. How foolish I was when I was young. I really believed that I could have made a difference, that I could have changed the world. But I guess," he laughed sadly, "things like that can't be done by a radio host. I was an idiot to think otherwise."  
Cecil gripped the paper in his hand. He spoke into the microphone with a life and a heat that had been dormant for a long time now. "You're wrong." He said. "To believe in becoming something greater than you are? To believe in hope? To believe that even when it all seems pointless, that the only things stopping us from doing all we want are our own fears, inadequacies...And petty differences. There's nothing foolish about believing any of those things. Thank you for teaching me that, Kevin. Truly, really, thank you."  
"Cecil? Cecil, are you still there?"  
"I'm still h-"  
"I can't hea...I ca...are you the...breaking u..." Static began intermittently breaking the words apart to the point of nigh-incoherence.  
"Kevin? Kevin!"  
The static stopped interrupting Kevin's words, instead becoming something that interrupted existence itself, before dying out altogether. Kevin was gone, as suddenly as he had appeared.  
But this time, the "ON AIR" light was still on, because this was Cecil's broadcast, and he knew that as simple as this show was, it was his. It was his way to make a difference. There was a need in this world, a need for a voice to get the word out to the people of this world. Kevin had believed that, earnestly, until the day that "he" died.  
"Listeners, I have an important announcement from Mayor Cardinal."  
He began to read the release, to spread the news of this town in need; this Desert Bluffs that had been given a second chance at salvation. He could never change the world, and he was okay with that, but to spread this news?  
He knew he could do this much


End file.
